It is necessary for an internet service provider (ISP) to inform its subscribers in real-time about important information pertaining to usage, policy changes, alerts, etc. ISPs currently utilize several methods, including e-mail, telephone, postal mail, and walled-garden and proprietary vendor in-browser notification products, to notify subscribers. However, these notification methods are not immediate and not always successful. For instance, subscribers do not regularly check their emails and, therefore, may overlook the urgency of a particular message. Also, postal mail should not be utilized for extremely time-sensitive messages that require immediate attention. In addition, subscribers may not appreciate unsolicited telephone calls from their ISP.
While a walled-garden approach to notifying subscribers may be effective for certain applications, the drawback to this method is that it blocks all network traffic and, therefore, the user is unable to browse the internet while receiving notifications. As such, the need arises for a real-time notification method that is guaranteed to be viewed and does not disrupt subscriber services.
Currently, there are certain methods for performing in-browser notifications, all of which have limitations. One method is to deploy a system that inspects all packets traversing through the ISP's network and inject extra packets into the stream to notify the user when needed. The technology underlying this method is commonly referred to as Deep Packet Inspection and may serve many other purposes but requires that the technology be deployed throughout the ISP's network in order to view all packets. This technique is not passive and requires connections to be reset. The system has to spoof the server response to an HTTP request packet in order to insert a notification. Therefore, the perception of authenticity from the subscriber's point-of-view may be reduced.
A second current method for performing in-browser notifications is to have a software application deployed on the subscribers' computer that automatically displays a notification when needed. However, this method is inefficient as it requires the user to install the ISP's software package on each PC for the notification to be read.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for alternative schemes for routing specific traffic to users that need to be notified with a message in real-time over the internet.